


Dinosaurs, Badger Folk, Ants, and Cephalopods

by Emimar



Series: Tolkien Twitter RP Shorts Modern AU [3]
Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-29
Updated: 2016-01-29
Packaged: 2018-05-17 02:11:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5849926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emimar/pseuds/Emimar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A little snippet from the modern au.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dinosaurs, Badger Folk, Ants, and Cephalopods

Missing Kili, who is on tour, she spends the morning in the natural history museum sketching dinosaur skulls.

Hearing her stomach growl intensely, and feeling that her concentration is beginning to wane, she packs up her pencils and note pad and dons her coat and heads out into the pouring rain. She heads for the Bird and Baby Cafe to grab lunch, which is run by a fat dwarf and several hobbit waitresses. Looking around, she recognizes some of the hobbit patrons who had been in there since second breakfast, had passed elevenses and were working their way through lunch. She wondered if she stopped by there at tea time if they would /still/ be there, enjoying their tea. She orders a pot of earl grey tea and elk burger and chips for lunch While she waits for that to arrive, she takes out her netbook, powers it up, and checks on her ‘Spy in the Sett’ project to see what badgers get up to underground. She manages to download an image or two before the wi fi connection cuts out, leaving her frustrated and muttering obscenities in Khuzdul. She puts the computer away and takes out a reliable book to read instead on astrophysics. She misses Kili’s company and wishes he was at the table with her.

She’s five pages into the first chapter when one of the hobbit waitresses brings her lunch over, and she digs in, very hungry at this stage. She wonders if she has room for desert, but decides that she’s had enough when she’s worked her way through half the chips and the elk steak. After she’s eaten, she reads some more of her book to let it settle and then leaves when she gets to the end of the chapter. She takes a walk through the park to the book shop she wants to visit - there is a new book out regarding badgers which she thinks will be useful for her 'Spy in the Den’ project that she wants to pick up. Walking along the wood chip path near a bench and a clump of bushes, she encounters a magazine which someone has discarded. Swearing in Khuzdul about litter louts, she picks the magazine up, and almost passes out when she realises what’s on the front cover.

A number of weeks ago, when the sun still warmed the earth, before Kili had gone off on his tour with his band’s first album, she and Kili had spent the afternoon on the river bank with the dogs where they’d had a picnic. Unknown to them, it seemed that they’d not been alone as they thought. There had been someone lurking. photographing them. It had been a happy day, now ruined and screwing the magazine up and throwing it in the nearest paper recycling bin, she wondered if it was worth visiting the bookshop. No wonder why she had caught people giving her strange looks, and strangers acting like they knew her. Damn

Deciding that avoiding the bookshop would be silly, she went there anyway and, knowing that it was a very bad idea, once she got there, she went straight to the science section and browsed the books. Going to the university library would have been a much wiser choice, as far as her poor aunt was concerned, as it was her bank account that would be light after this visit, and she would not allow Kili’s input on the matter. Several caught her eye - Dog Behaviour, Fossil Relatives of Cats, Ant Societies, Cephalopod Behaviour… They were all very enticing, and she was disappointed that she would not be able to take them all. All had the extortionate price that accompanies academic scientific literature and in the end she settles on the ants and the cephalopods.

A student who seemed to be buying up the entire classic literature section was in front of her when she reached the number that needed to be scanned, and was confounded when the student had problems with paying for them with their card. She sighs, growing impatient with the wait, and then spots a crumpled copy of that magazine half-hidden behind the assistant and suddenly, the urge to leave the books and exit the shop over-whelm her, but just before she could make her escape, the shop assistant finished up the transaction with the other customer and turned her attention to her. She grins at the dwarrowdam and because she recognises her from the photos, she can’t help but gush out how much she like’s Kili’s band. The dwarrowdam answers politely, while embarrassment courses through her, which she attempts to hide, and inquires about the book she ordered.

She groans internally when she realises that she has to give out her address, the one in which she and Kili now resided when he was present. She only hopes that the assistant would protect their privacy and not reveal it to some nosey reporter. After an annoyingly long wait, the hobbit fails to find her book and looks it up on the computer. She shakes her head at the dwarrowdam and informs her that the book won’t arrive for another month, as it was being delayed at the printers. She refrains from commenting and pays for the unexpected books that she chose, and heads out into the rain. Frustrated, she decided that it was to head for home and made her way to the nearest bus stop that would take her to her sister’s stables. She was staying there while Kili was away because she needed someone to dog sit while she went about her business.


End file.
